


‘til death do us part

by petcheetah



Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Character Death, Immortality
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 22:53:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17948681
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/petcheetah/pseuds/petcheetah
Summary: death is not uncommon when you are klaus hargreeves. both in regards to dead people and himself.





	‘til death do us part

the first time klaus dies, he’s 12 years old, and his father has left him  alone for too long in a room with hardly any oxygen. ‘be silent, number four. i will not tolerate this incessant misbehaviour’. klaus can remember his vision going black, and the way his lungs had brought in far too much air that left him just as quickly. he remembers a white landscape, and a little girl staring at him, and then he gasps in air as the door to the mausoleum is opened and there stands his father. his father doesn’t even notice. klaus pushes the memory to as far back into his head as possible as the sound of the ghosts are heard once more.

the second time he dies, it’s because luther was being too rough during a training session. one well placed punch sends klaus flying across the room, every single one of his ribs cracking at the force. the little girl is there again, he is 14 years old, and he opens his eyes before luther even makes it over to him. his ribs are fixed quickly and their father makes sure that luther is never paired with klaus again.

the next time he dies, it’s from an overdose. ben is dead, and is staring at him from the corner of the room, crying. he’s saying something but in that moment klaus doesn’t care because what use is he in this world when ben is dead? the little girl doesn’t appear this time. he wakes up in a hospital room attached to an IV. ben is still there and is pleading to him to please,  _ please  _ never do that again, klaus. he won’t respond. they send him to rehab, but he doesn’t get better.

the fourth time he dies, he’s 25 and alone. ben had left for the moment, afraid of what would become of klaus now that he was on the streets and letting strangers have his body for the night just for a single hit. he dies in an alleyway, naked and covered in bruises and he is not found. when he opens his eyes again, he quietly asks for ben to come back, and ben returns almost immediately. he stays there, the only one who has never completely left him, as klaus cries for the first time in years.

he dies a lot in the streets.

the next time he dies, after he returns home and his father is dead himself, it’s 1983 and dave is at his side as a war rages on around him. he is hit by a stray bullet and dave is crying and klaus thinks to himself that maybe dying like this wouldn’t be so bad, not when the love of his life is by his side. he’s taken to a medic tent but by the time they have him on one of the beds and there is a nurse looking at him, the wound is already healed. the next time he is on the battlefield, dave is not as lucky.

he dies on the floor of a club looking for his brother next, and he sees the little girl again. she is God. it is a strange experience to learn that she does not, in fact, love him as all of those christians seem to say. it is the first time he stays there long enough to learn that he has in fact died. he sees his dad, and the disappoint on his face is all too familiar. when he returns to the land of the living, it’s knowing that his father killed himself to try and prevent the very apocalypse they were all so close to face.

everyone dies. klaus can see god behind his eyes, then blue surrounds his vision and he is Not Dead. ben is at his side and there is a movement of his chest that klaus has not seen in years, and he is so  _ small.  _ they are all twelve again, wearing clothes far too big, covering in dust and smoke and looking at one enough in disbelief.

he wonders how no one had noticed before, when he dies the next time, surrounded by his siblings. he was too slow to move this time, one of the bank robbers had fired at him unlike the last time, and all of a sudden he is back in the afterlife. god looks at him in disdain, waves a hand. then there is dave, and klaus is plenty blissed out when he returns to life. the bliss fades at his siblings terrified faces.

they had believed him dead. they had not been wrong. they look to the bullet wound and it is closed, and then they seem to realise. klaus cannot help his laugh, because it was something that had haunted him from age 12, the last time round. and then he is in the arms of his siblings, because  _ god,  _ klaus, you may not die but we don’t want to see you hurt. and he has more comfort around him then he ever had before, and when they leave the bank he is wearing a smile that isn’t fake, that he has never worn after a death before. because he is not alone.


End file.
